The group consists of the brothers Jean Paul Makhlouf and Alex Makhlouf, along with Samuel Frisch. They produce, record, mix & master all their music together as a trio.[1] They are currently signed to Big Beat/Atlantic Records, a subsidiary of Warner Music Group worldwide.[2][3] The group's highest charting song to date is "Take Me Home", which features vocals by Bebe Rexha. Their song "Lightning" was the following single released and features vocals from John Rzeznik of the Goo Goo Dolls.[4] “Surrender” was the third single released since the group signed with their new label.[5] An animated lyric video for the song was premiered in Times Square by Shazam and officially released on October 6, 2014.[6][7]

Cash Cash members Jean Paul Makhlouf and Sam Frisch first began playing together under the name The Consequence in 2002.[12][13] As The Consequence, the band put out 3 releases independently, Your Own Place (2004),[12]The Consequence (2005),[12] and By The Bedside (2006).[12][13] The band went through various keyboardists and drummers before solidifying the group with Alexander Makhlouf and drummer Anthony Villacari in 2007.[13][14]

In early 2008 the group coalesced under the name Cash Cash, with members Jean Paul Makhlouf, Alexander Makhlouf, and Samuel Frisch. They came up with the name Cash Cash due to legal issues that arose from not trademarking their previous name "The Consequence." In an interview Jean Paul stated, "Basically we were in a previous group growing up and never thought to copyright the name because when you're a young local garage band, you don't have the money and don't think it really matters. Well after we signed our first record deal, it kind of did matter. We got hit with a ton of legal notices about it from the person who owned the name, and had this old agent trying to screw us over, so when putting the new group together out of frustration, I was like, we should just name this group "Cash Cash" because every one is after our cash, and we don't have any yet."[14][15]

In late 2009 and 2010, the group released several singles which were not part of an album or EP release, including a cover of Cascada's single "Everytime We Touch" featuring rapper MC Oz. The group continued to tour through the winter of 2010, playing the Seattle Kiss FM show "Jingle Bell Bash" with The All-American Rejects, Cobra Starship, and All Time Low. At the end of February and into the spring of 2010, the group went on their first headlining United States tour, "The Robots in Hightops Tour." On March 9, 2010 Cash Cash released a cover single of the Alphaville song "Forever Young". The band released a new single in mid-November 2010 on Universal titled "Red Cup (I Fly Solo)" featuring Lacey Schwimmer and Spose.

In 2011, The group parted ways with their drummer Anthony Villacari due to creative differences and continued to operate as a trio. Anthony Villacari continues to play drums in another trio known as Moa Desert.[19] Their second full length album, Love or Lust, was released on April 19, 2011 through the Japanese label Twilight Records. Multiple songs off the album were featured on MTV's Jersey Shore and The Real World.[20][21]

Cash Cash then released "The Beat Goes On" as an 11 song LP[22] in Japan but a 6 song EP[23] in every other country. Both formats contained the two songs "Michael Jackson" and "I Like It Loud," which were also soon after released as singles through Dutch independent dance label Spinnin' Records.[24] The group headlined a tour in Japan as well as shows in Brazil in 2011 supporting Love or Lust, and returned to Japan in 2012 for another tour supporting their new single "Michael Jackson (The Beat Goes On)", a tribute to the musician Michael Jackson. "Michael Jackson" appeared on the album 538 Dance Smash 2012, Vol.4. On December 10, 2012, Cash Cash had their remix of "Alive" by Krewella released on the Play Harder Remix EP. Throughout the year, Cash Cash had numerous original songs and remixes reach #1 on the Hype Machine popular chart.[25]

The group slowly gained exposure in the dance community in 2012 and 2013, paricularly via connections with Hardwell and Nicky Romero and releases on their boutique labels. During Ultra Music Festival 2013 on behalf of the Huffington Post, Cash Cash conducted interviews with both musicians.[26][27] Cash Cash was featured on their respective radio shows, "Protocol Radio,"[28] & "Hardwell on Air."[29] On May 20, 2013, Cash Cash released a remix of "Symphonica" by Nicky Romero that was released on Beatport through Protocol Recordings.[30] Romero also invited Cash Cash to perform at a Protocol Recordings showcase during the ADE festival on October 16, 2013 at the Melkweg in Amsterdam with Martin Garrix, Vicetone, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, and John Dahlbäck. Hardwell included Cash Cash's remix of his track "Dare You" on Dare You – The Remixes Part 1 through Revealed Recordings in February 2014.[31]

On April 16, 2013, the group announced via Twitter that they had signed with Atlantic / Big Beat Records and had begun recording new material for an upcoming release. That same date, the group's remix of "Safe and Sound" by Capital Cities was released on the Safe And Sound Remix EP through Lazy Hooks/Capitol Records.[32] On July 15, 2013, the group released "Take Me Home", featuring vocalist Bebe Rexha, which became their highest-charting single in the United States and United Kingdom. It peaked at #18 on the US Pop Songs chart and #57 on the US Billboard Hot 100,[33] and debuted at number #4 in the UK Dance Charts and number #5 in the UK Singles Charts in 2014. An acoustic version of the song, along with a video documenting the recording process, was released in November 2013.[34] In 2013, Cash Cash launched their online podcast/radio show named "Royalty Radio" via their soundcloud page as well as YouTube channel.[35] Their next release was a progressive house remix of Showtek's "Booyah" ft. We Are Loud & Sonny Wilson that was released on November 8, 2013, through Spinnin' Records.[36]

Following the Atlantic signing, the group released two EPs of new material. On October 29, 2013, they released their Overtime EP consisting of 6 new songs, including "Take Me Home", "Hideaway" featuring British singer songwriter Ella Eyre and "Here and Now" featuring vocals from Estonian recording artist and songwriter Kerli.[37] On March 24, 2014, the group released the Lightning EP, consisting of a new single "Lightning" and remixes of previous songs off the Overtime EP.[4] "Lightning" features John Rzeznik of the Goo Goo Dolls on vocals and was written by Cash Cash and Rzeznik. A remix pack for "Lightning" was released on July 21, 2014 exclusively on beatport containing remixes by Dash Berlin, EDX, Sex Panther, and Audiobot.[38]

Alongside this, the group continued releasing singles and remixes in 2014. On January 21, 2014, Cash Cash and Adrian Lux released a collaboration called "Bullet".[39][40] On April 9, 2014, Rolling Stone premiered the "Cash Cash x Valley" remix of Clean Bandit's "Rather Be" on their website.[41] The Cash Cash remix of Katy Perry's song "Birthday" was featured at the end of the song's official music video.[42]

The group also continued to tour through late 2013 and 2014, playing several dance music festivals. Cash Cash performed at Winter Galactic with Dada Life & Porter Robinson on New Year's Eve, December 31, 2013 at Hammerstein Ballroom.[43] They played Edmonton Canada's Frequency Festival on February 15, 2014.[44] In February 2014, Marquee Las Vegas announced that Cash Cash will take part in a 2014 residency at their nightclub & dayclub.[45] On March 27, 2014, Cash Cash received an IDMA at Winter Music Conference for “Best Break-Through Artist (Group).”[46] Following their appearance at Winter Music Conference in Miami, the group played an international show in Montreal, Canada at New City Gas on April 19, 2014.[47] The trio performed at various music festivals in the spring of 2014, including the Avila Beach Party on May 23, 2014,[48]Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) New York on May 24, 2014, Sunset Music Festival (SMF) in Tampa, FL on May 25, 2014, Firefly Music Festival on June 20, 2014,[49][50] and Paradiso Festival in Washington on June 27, 2014.[51] Cash Cash along with Candyland, Pegboard Nerds, and 12th Planet played an event together called "Beach Blanket Bingo" in Wildwood, NJ on June 28, 2014.[52] The following day the group played WKTU's Ktuphoria event with Calvin Harris, Ariana Grande, and Jennifer Lopez.[53] Later that summer on July 5, Cash Cash along with Afrojack and Borgore played a Life in Color paint party event in Texas. That same month, the group headlined a short international Canadian tour djing at Crocks in Thunder Bay on the 10th and Uniun night club in Toronto on the 11th. On August 1, 2014, they performed at Lollapalooza in Chicago and then returned to Canada to play a handful of festivals such as Boonstock,[54] Ilesoniq,[55] and Chasing Summer.[56][57] Throughout 2014, Cash Cash performed on multiple dates of the Budweiser "Made in America" tour.[58] September 2, 2014, BPM (Sirius XM) exclusively premiered their new single, "Surrender", which was released on iTunes September 16, 2014.[59] On September 5, 2014, Cash Cash played Nocturnal Wonderland in San Bernardino, California.[60] As of 2014, EMI Music Publishing's website confirms that as songwriters, Cash Cash is currently signed to EMI Music Publishing, which is now owned by a consortium led by Sony/ATV Music Publishing.[61] On March 26, 2015, the group will play at the Delano Hotel for the Big Beat and Friends Party during Miami Music Week. [62]

While playing as The Consequence and early under the name Cash Cash, the group used a more traditional band setup,[11] with use of live guitars, bass guitar, drums, keyboards, vocoders/talk boxes, and electronics. Hip Online referred to the group's early releases as technopop,[12] while AllMusic classified Take It to the Floor as electronicpop/rock and emo-pop.[63] Allmusic further described the album as "[f]illed with [processed] vocals, old-school synths, singalong choruses, [and] slick-as-oil vocal harmonies."[63]PopMatters noted the album's "standard emo-pop elements" and opined that the group's style "suggest[s] Fall Out Boy with some synthy window dressing."[64] Jean-Paul described the band's early style as an attempt to "Bring back some of that 70s funk guitar, mixed in with the life and fun of the 80s."[12] USA Today, in a later assessment, noted that the group's early work "has always had a dance-music sensibility, but starting out, they were lumped into the alt-rock scene."[11]

Over the course of the early 2010s, the group began moving away from standard band instrumentation and began incorporating more elements of electronic dance music. In an interview with EDM Sauce, they talk about their transition being facilitated by frequent production and remixing on the side. Cash Cash stated, "I think for us it was a slow evolution, because we were always remixing and producing for other artists and doing outside production."[65] In another interview with Only The Beat, the group stated, "When we first started as a band our sound was "poppy", but we always had underlying electronic elements to our music. Once we started changing and growing, our sound slowly began evolving."[66] The group's 2011 album Love or Lust was described by Under the Gun Review as "dance/powerpop...full of bass rhythms, synthetic claps, techno beats, and dance/party/club themes".[67] Following releases and remixes were also received as electronica and electro pop.[11][68][69][70][71]

Cash Cash's first RIAA certified song Take Me Home has been categorized by as a progressive house dance song.[72][73] Dancing Astronaut described the Overtime EP's electro house qualities by stating the group is "gracing the world with a dose of electro house and dubbed-out tunes."[74] Songs off the Overtime EP such as Here and Now and Satellites have been classified as house or its subgenre electro house.[75][76] Dancing Astronaut further elaborated on the sound of the release by stating, "The EP continues with a bright feel, boosted by the unique blend of fluorescent synths and dirty bass."[74] Other Cash Cash originals such as Kiss The Sky and Overtime along with their remix of Treasure by Bruno Mars have been labeled by electronic music blogs as Nu-Disco and Glitch Hop.[77][78][79] Throughout 2014, the group's subsequent singles Lightning & Surrender were also reviewed as progressive & electro house.[80][81][82]

In 2013, Cash Cash stated in their Huffington Post interview that they produce their music using Steinberg's Cubase as their digital audio workstation.[83][84] In another interview with EDM blog "Notable Dance," the group stated "We use Cubase as a host for everything but we mess around in Ableton."[85] In a studio video released in May 2013, the group discuss various equipment and gear they use, including a vintage Korg Juno – D, Avalon AD2022 preamp, Empirical Labs Distressor, Joe Meek Twin Q, & Neumann TLM 49. During the video they speak about owning a few discontinued Samson D – 1500 real time analyzers. Their speaker set up consists of Adam A8X's & a pair of mix cubes that are A/B controlled by a PreSonus Central Station. The producer trio recently added a Neuman U87 to their studio set up as well.[86]